Philly connections abound for Siena, Saint Joseph’s

Phil Martelli coached his first basketball game in 1976. He was the head coach at Cardinal O’Hara High in Philadelphia, and his first game was at the Palestra.

The point guard for the other team? That was none other than Fran McCaffery, who played for LaSalle High.

“I’ve known Fran more than 30 years,” said Martelli, Saint Joseph’s 13-year coach who has won the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year award four times.

McCaffery, born and raised in Philadelphia and a graduate of Penn, isn’t Siena’s only connection to the City of Brotherly Love. Next year, when the Saints play at Saint Joseph’s, the game figures to be a homecoming for about a quarter of the roster.

Ronald Moore is from just outside Philly. Clarence Jackson and Erik Harris are from Philadelphia suburbs. And Alex Franklin is from Reading, Pa., about 60 miles away.

Moore already is plenty familiar with Saint Joseph’s players. He played against several in high school and AAU tournaments and then against more this past summer, when he competed in Philadelphia’s Sonny Hill League.

Among those Moore competed against were Tasheed Carr, Garrett Williamson and Ahmad Nivins. Moore figures to see some of Carr, Saint Joseph’s point guard, on Friday.

Ubiles often guards bigger players with less athleticism. Against Saint Joseph’s, he gets an equally versatile player who also stands 3 inches taller.

How’s this for a unique skill set: Calathes, who’s 6-10, leads Saint Joseph’s in scoring. But he also ranks second on the team in 3-pointers made and total assists. He takes players off the dribble, too.

Did I mention he’s 6-10?

A healthy Franklin would figure to see some of Calathes, too. But either way, watching Calathes and Ubiles do battle figures to be entertaining at both ends.

Ubiles, off a 29-point performance against Holy Cross, will be much relied on again if Franklin sits.

Siena will win if … it can disrupt Saint Joseph’s offense by forcing turnovers and bad shots.

In other words, the Saints can win if they follow the same script Holy Cross did when beat Saint Joe’s 71-66.

Holy Cross started that game on an 18-2 run. It forced six turnovers in the first eight possessions and kept the Hawks without a field goal for the first 14 minutes, 59 seconds of the game. Calathes didn’t score in the first half, and Nivins took only one shot.

Saint Joseph’s will win if … it controls the boards.

Here’s an odd statistic: The Hawks boast a frontcourt that goes 6-10, 6-8 and 6-9, yet its rebounding margin is -1.2.

Even without Franklin, Siena did an admirable job staying with Holy Cross on the boards. Getting out-rebounded by only three was quite an accomplishment, considering the -22 differential when the teams played last year.

The Saints need a similar effort against the Hawks, because too many easy baskets will make for an easy Saint Joseph’s win.

Did you know: Siena and Saint Joseph’s haven’t played since Dec. 5, 1985. Siena won 69-53 at Alumni Recreation Center.

Predication: It’s nice to be back over .500. I’m 5-4, thanks to Siena’s four-game winning streak. I picked the Saints three out of the four times.

This time, I’m going against them. (Which some fans still might appreciate.)

Even if Alex Franklin plays at 100 percent – which I consider to be a pretty big unlikelihood – there are quite a few match-up problems here for the Saints. They face a team that in some ways play like they do – except the Hawks are bigger and just as athletic.

Saint Joseph’s 5-4 record is deceiving, too. It hasn’t lost by more than six points, its losses all came to very good teams, and two of the losses were in overtime.